Process-Chain Should-Cost Builder

Build a rough, bottom-up price for a product made through a chain of process steps (extrusion, print, laminate, pouch-making, …), see how much of the price is material, conversion, waste, overhead and margin, and how margin stacks when steps sit in separate companies. All prices and rates are yours; nothing is shipped or transmitted. A rough estimate, not a quote.

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1. Format and order

Web width (m)

Good units per web metre (lanes ÷ repeat length in m)

Good units required

Material price unit

Tooling cost ($)

Tooling amortization quantity (units)

2. Materials (give gsm, or thickness and density)

Name	gsm (g/m²)	or thickness (µm)	density (g/cm³)	Price	Enters at step

3. Process steps in order (one row per step; tick “separate company” if a different company takes over after this step)

Name	Rate ($/hr)	Speed	Speed unit	Setup (hr)	Setup waste (m)	Run yield (%)	Separate company after?

The last step always sells to the buyer. One web width is used for the whole chain.

4. Overhead, margin and uncertainty

Overhead (% on a stage’s material, conversion and bought-in input)

Margin (% of a stage’s selling price)

Uncertainty: prices and rates ± (%)

Uncertainty: speeds ± (%)

Uncertainty: run yield ± (points)

Quoted price per 1,000 (optional)

When NOT to use this

It is a rough estimate. Use it as a reference range for a negotiation, not as proof that a quote is wrong. The range is an outer bound with every input at one extreme, not a confidence interval.
All prices and rates are yours; the tool has no market data. Garbage in, garbage out.
One web width for the whole chain, so a slit-down or an extrusion step at a different width is approximated. Web-based products only; not rigid packaging, thermoforming, molding or corrugate.
Waste is step run yield plus fixed setup waste, valued at the cost carried into that step. No scrap resale or regrind credit.
Overhead and margin are percentages. Plant allocation, freight, minimum-order charges, payment terms and tariffs are not modeled. Overhead at a downstream stage applies to what it receives as well as what it adds, so it compounds.
Validation is structural and arithmetic only: the published examples are vendor web pages, one with an error (see the validation notes in the repository).